Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a nice thanksgiving with Aaron's family. It was fun and I was glad to hang out and relax in a comfy home. I feel cold at my house.

Things have gotten better for us. The car is fixed and so is the oven. I'm feeling much better. My back gives out after too much strain. Otherwise, we're back to being a boring family.

It's raining...

...misfortune, that is. I wouldn't say it's pouring yet. Our oven's bake element went out. Aaron didn't know to turn off the breaker before removing it and broke a piece. We had to wait three days for the repairman to come out and fix it. Aaron refused to buy the element from the repairman, which is frugal, but we have to wait. He took two days to find and order one off the internet. It is frugal. We still have 5-8 days left to wait for our element. I'm tired of eating soup! I am also not yet going out. I took Caitlyn to dance class this week. I was in such pain from bending over to buckle Ben that we stayed in the car for an hour in order to not have to buckle Ben again. I am not going to the store and we are out of bread products. I would bake bread if only we had an oven. Then the other night as Aaron was traveling to Salt Lake for Bell practice his car broke. It was fixed yesterday, but it broke again on the way to work. Ford paid for the tow truck the second time and didn't charge for labor. The first time they replaced a part broken by the origional broken part. I'm so glad Aaron got a good bonus.

Last week while I was couch-ridden I sent Aaron to the library with the kids. He came back with a book on the linguistics of Tolkien's Hobbits. It was so interesting that I engaged in reading The Lord of the Rings. I'm in The Two Towers now. It is an engaging story, but I am not yet a fanatic (I doubt I ever will be.) as are some like my husband.

Events

A week ago I took advantage of a sale on powdered and brown sugar. I had one bag of 16 pounds of brown sugar. The other had 8 pounds of powdered sugar. I was in productive mood and went flying down the stairs with my sugar to put away. When I was 1/3rd of the way down my foot slipped and I felt the sensation that I was flying. I started unconsciously screaming and I don't scream. I went to the doctor. I've pulled some butt muscles and bruised my tailbone. I'm still in a lot of pain and can't sit. I wish I could have broken my arm instead.

Ben got his 5th tooth last night. The sixth should be in any time soon. He's been sleeping with me at night. I really want this tooth business to end so he will be back to his own crib. We tried the "mommy shirt trick" last night. It lasted about an hour, which is more time than he had previously been spending in his crib.

Aaron's big news is that he is now a member of the Tabernacle Bell Choir. He's a substitute until someone quits or becomes pregnant. It's exciting.

Halloween and pumpkins!

We had a lovely Halloween. Okay, it was busy and crazy, but the kids had fun. We baked most of the day and then carved pupmpkins. The kids drew their faces (or Emily drew hers, Eric's, and Karen's- all the same and Caitlyn drew hers.) I took the liberty to make Karen's different.


Then they got into costume. The girls were Mary, Laura, and Carrie. Eric was a crocodile and Ben a dragon.




They went out and got tons and tons of candy. I need to find someplace to donate it.

The day after Halloween was pumpkin cooking day. I cooked all four jack o'lanterns.



Caitlyn's


Karen's


Emily's


And Eric's. (I forgot to take the picture prior to slicing in half.)


What I did with the pumpkin after baking it. This is Karen's and maybe Eric's.




This is Emily's and Caitlyn's.



This was last night's dinner: Pumpkin Chili. It was really good!


Here's my giant pumpkin which I haven't carved yet.


I am tired of pumpkins!!! Today is a day to take it easy, clean house, and order pizza.

Ramblings of the day

I'm almost finished with War and Peace. I'm at the end where Tolstoy rambles his philosophies on history. It is boring and quite a challenge to get through. I read Potok's "The Chosen" this weekend. An interesting way to educate. I started Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" today.

Dinner was something I pulled out of the freezer and re-heated. I don't remember what it was called. It was spicy with sausage. I've eaten too much candy today and feel really bad. Candy isn't good for me. I need more control. I made apple goodie as an alternative to candy.

I learned I should look at what Karen is wearing before I let her out of the house. Shakespeare made me sleepy. When the kids came up stairs I sleepily told them they could go outside. After coming in and out about a dozen times I was wide awake. Karen had managed to pull tights over her pants. She looked really silly.

The primary program is in two weeks. The kids had their lines memorized last week. On Sunday they got to practice, but they all got nervous up at the mic and forgot their lines. Fortunately Emily and Caitlyn can read.

On down the ranks

Yesterday Caitlyn and Karen were ill. Last night and today it is my turn. I think we're having waffles for dinner. We had plans this weekend. Tomorrow is the pumpkin walk at the grist mill. We were then going to spend Saturday with the grandparents. They have pumpkins to give us. If Emily and Eric will get sick tonight we should be able to go to the grandparents on Saturday. I am feeling lethargic. I'm glad I went around doing all sorts of household chores last night when I started feeling sick. I've made it to book 2 of War and Peace. Last night my dreams were of the Russian and French commanders having words with each other. Then they'd sing something to the tune of the 6th Article of Faith. That can get really annoying when it plays out in your mind over and over and over... Tomorrow will be a better day.

A Better Day

My grandpa called. It is his old car that had the missing keys. Turns out I should have talked to grandpa before paying a locksmith to make new keys. Grandpa has a spare set.

Aaron was ill last night. I realized my weird feeling is due to a clogged duct. I've got to deal with that before it turns very bad.

I got to my tomatoes. I canned a 16 ounce and an 8 ounce jar of tomato sauce. I think that is good for only two plants. The last two years I only got an 8 ounce jar. We used less fresh tomatoes this year. I feel relieved to be done with them.

Now, for dinner... I need to get my act together and make a monthly dinner plan. I hate dinner. I think we're having sandwiches since I am baking bread.

Christine